PM suggests curbs on finance or driving licences for 18-year-olds who refuse service during challenging Question Time leaders’ special
Rishi Sunak has indicated that young people might face restrictions on access to finance or driving licences if they refuse to do national service, as he faced a TV quizzing from voters.
Asked during a BBC Question Time special what sanctions people could face for declining to take part in the Conservative policy of compulsory national service for all 18-year-olds, the prime minister pointed to “driving licences, or the access to finance, all sorts of other things”.
Questioned on whether this could mean denying young people bank cards, he replied: “There’s lot of different models around Europe.”
In his half-hour slot on the show, following Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney, the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National party leaders, Sunak was also repeatedly challenged on why the public should trust the Tories after 14 sometimes chaotic years in office.
He received shouts of “shame” after refusing to say he would keep Britain in the European convention on human rights.
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